It
always seemed a shame to me that Wreckless
Eric was somehow considered one of
the also-rans of the great Stiff Records stable
of the late seventies that spawned Elvis Costello
and Ian Dury and the Blockheads, a sort of not-to-be-taken
seriously novelty act amongst novelty acts. No doubt
the name may have had something to do with this,
and the famously reckless behaviour, and the astonishingly
reckless drinking that fuelled it, which became
for a considerable while Eric Goulden’s demon.
But he wrote great songs and performed them with
a unique candour. If he was an artist, and if I
was an art critic (which thank the lord I’m
not Serge) then you might describe his work as rude,
or belonging to a naive school.

Wreckless
Eric in the late 1970's

I’d
just prefer to say that his songs were very open
and honest, with not a lot of room for subtlety.
However, obvious they were not. But hang on a minute!
Why all this past tense? This isn’t an obituary
it’s a bloody review. And not only is Eric
still alive, he’s back with a new(ish) album
Bungalow Hi. Back from where? Well, for a while
Serge he was in your lovely France, where in addition
to the highly regarded Len Bright Combo he also
had a band called Le Beat Group Électrique.
And during this time he was also dealing with his
personal demons, as they say in the wild world of
rock and roll. But to be honest he’d almost
disappeared from my personal radar until I picked
him up again, talking with great frankness and humour
on one of those Sunday night religious sounding
radio programmes that I only listen to in the car.
So that’s why we’re here nice and early
in the 100 Club to see our man who is supporting
Whiskyfun favourite Wilko Johnson on this festive
Friday gig. We fall in with the Edinburgh branch
of the Wreckless Eric Fan Club, who appoint themselves
as personal bodyguards to The Photographer. “See
that man” says one, gesticulating with his
beer at Eric, “he’s a fucking God”.
We’re then shown mobile phone photographs
of set lists from previous Eric gigs. Later I get
the tattooed arms round the shoulder treatment,
“Listen, how does he remember all of those
words. He’s a fucking poet man, a fucking
poet…” These two aren’t the only
fans, and the rest of the crowd are good natured
enough to give Eric a fair hearing, and he responds
with a cracking forty-five minutes or so.

He’s
a happy guy, despite the fact that you might think
otherwise from his songs, and not just the more
recent ones. He’s also blessed with a lovely
smile and Tommy Steele eyebrows, so even when the
songs get bleak (and believe me Eric does bleak
very well) there’s still a nice feeling in
the air. He chats, questions (“Am I fucking
this up?”), and challenges, “Someone
said this was the most alienating song I ever wrote,
so let’s see what you think of it …”,
then “If you think that was fucking alienating
then try this one …” Oh yes, and he’s
also wearing a very nice suit. He sings, in no particular
order, ‘Continuity Girl’, ‘Same’,
‘Local’, and ‘33s and 45s’
(introduced with the comment, “Some people
find me difficult to live with, can you fucking
believe that?”) from Hi Bungalow, ‘Whole
wide world’, ‘Joe Meek’, ‘Final
Taxi’ and ‘Someone must’ve nailed
us together’, playing acoustic and electric
guitars, with some funny stuff from a bass keyboard
that he sets off occasionally, and also some congas
that he hits. There are also what Edgar Allen Poe
described in The Fall of the House of Usher as ‘wild
improvisations of the speaking guitar’ –
reflecting the style of all the Bungalow Hi songs,
“Fuck, it’s gone all progressive”
shouts Wreckless as he looses his way during one
of these.

Later
The Photographer disappears with her bodyguards
and returns with my copy of Bungalow Hi signed with
a message from Eric, “Be kind?” He means
the review of course. I don’t need to be.
His set was more than worth the ticket money, and
we’ve still got Wilko to come – I should
mention here that Wilko (who was competing with
the great Norman Watt Roy for the roles of Ghosts
of Christmas Past, Present and Future) was just
as good as when we saw him in March. But have a
look at Eric’s website
to see what he does with reviewers,
which is a sort of review and reviewer deconstruction
by the reviewee. Cool stuff.

Kate,
Whiskyfun's Official Concert Photographer with
Wreckless Eric

And yes, if you do go to the website you can not
only order copies of his albums (which you should
do – Bungalow Hi is really worth a listen),
but also his book, A
dysfunctional success, the Wreckless Eric Manual.
And you can look up his dates and make sure you
go and see him if he turns up for a gig somewhere
near you – he deserves the audience. -
Nick Morgan (concert photographs by Kate)